TradesLandscapers

Run a Landscaping Business That Pays You ProperlyStill on the excavator at five, still quoting sloping blocks at nine. That is a business running you.

This is the business side of landscaping, written for the owner. Licences, charge-out rates, award wages, quoting design and construct work, and building a crew that can run a site without you. Practical training for Australian and New Zealand landscaping businesses, and Greg Allan for the owners he takes on.

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A painted scene of a landscaping crew screeding a bed of sand along a rail, stacked pavers waiting beside them

The week this is about

Running A Landscaping Business Looks Like This.

You quoted the block flat and it was not

The plan looked simple until the bobcat could not get down the side, the fall was worse than it measured, and two days went on barrowing road base by hand. You wear it, because the price was already signed.

Spring buries you, winter empties the account

From August the phone does not stop and you are turning work away. By June the builds have dried up, the maintenance round barely covers wages, and you are paying machine hire on jobs you took just to keep the crew busy.

Every site still needs you standing on it

The set out, the levels, the plant order, the tip run, the client who wants the wall shifted after it is pegged. Nobody else on the crew can make those calls, so you cannot quote, cannot invoice, and cannot take a Friday off.

Another year of this and you are a very good landscaper with a business that cannot run, cannot sell, and cannot give you a week off without losing money.

A trade business owner working alone at the kitchen table late at night, laptop open and paperwork spread across the table, work boots and tool bag by the door

How we help

Nine Ways We Help Landscapers.

Every one of these is a way landscaping business owners get out from under the business and start running it properly. Start wherever it hurts most.

Training

Landscaper Business Training

Structured training that turns what landscapers know on the tools into a business that runs properly.

Coaching

Landscaper Business Coach

Greg Allan in your corner, holding landscapers to the plan. By application.

Systems

Landscaper Business Systems

Systems landscapers build on their own data, so the work runs properly without them standing there.

Software

Landscaper Business Software

Software landscapers build on their own data, instead of renting tools built for every trade at once.

Business apps

Landscaper Business Apps

The simple screens landscapers build for their crew and customers, on their own data.

AI for Landscaping Businesses

AI agents that do the office work for landscapers, their way, so people stay on customers and the crew.

Marketing and leads

Landscaper Business Marketing

How landscapers get the phone ringing with the jobs worth having, not just the cheap ones.

Pricing and profit

Landscaper Business Pricing

The number landscapers should actually be charging, worked out properly rather than guessed.

Hiring and team

Landscaper Business Hiring

How landscapers build a crew that does it right without being watched.

A trade business owner watching his child play sport on a Saturday morning, coffee in hand and phone face down — Nights and weekends back

A trade business owner and his partner in the kitchen looking at a tablet showing the numbers going up — Work that actually pays

A trade business owner shaking hands with a new apprentice in the work yard — A good hire who stays

A trade business owner standing calmly in the yard while his crew load two utes behind him — Out of the middle of everything

Worth knowing

Two Things Every Landscaper Running A Business Should Know.

Structural landscaping triggers a licence at a different point in each state: $3,300 in Queensland, $5,000 in New South Wales and $10,000 in Victoria.

Source: QBCC, NSW Fair Trading and the Victorian Building Authority

Retaining walls are the trade's regulatory hotspot: roughly 1 metre triggers council approval, while engineering under AS 4678 is commonly triggered from 800mm.

Source: NCC Part 3.1.2 Earth Retaining Structures, and AS 4678 Earth Retaining Structures

Greg Allan mid-explanation with his hands open, talking to a trade business owner across a desk

Why Greg

You speak to the owner who has already done it.

Greg built Response Electricians in Perth into a 30+ staff business with 1,950+ five-star reviews. A general manager runs it.

He has trained 9,000+ trade business owners across Australia and New Zealand.

He grew a coaching company to 35 staff, a CEO and 15 coaches, then cut it back so every owner deals with him directly.

Most coaching companies hand you to a salesperson, then to a coach who has never run a trade business. Here you get the owner.

Read how Greg built a trade business that runs without him

What changes for you

The old way. The new way.

Illustration: a trade business owner standing over three office staff buried in paperwork at night. — The old way
More customers meant more people doing the computer work, and more wages nobody invoices.

Illustration: a tradesman shaking hands with a homeowner in her driveway, his phone showing jobs quoted and invoiced. — The new way
You stay with your customers and your team. The office stops landing on you.

The old way

More jobs. More paperwork. Less of the owner left.

Most trade businesses grow the same way.

More jobs means more quoting, invoicing, chasing and scheduling.

None of it gets paid for.

So the owner does it at night, after a full day on site.

Or hires an office person to do it.

The office grows. The wages grow. The margin does not.

And the owner is still the one everything waits on.

Where we take you

More work. More profit. More of you left.

The phone rings with the jobs you want, at the price you set.

You grow when you're ready, never faster than the business can carry.

Every job is priced to make money, so the busy months show up in the bank.

The best tradies in your area want to work for you, and they stay.

The chasing, the paperwork and the 9pm admin stop landing on you.

The business runs the day. You pick which parts of it you're in.

Bigger, without the headaches. Getting bigger stops meaning getting busier.

9,000+tradies trained4.9★Google rating4.9★App Store rating

Questions

Landscapers Ask Us These.

Do I need a licence to run a landscaping business in Australia?

It depends on the state and the value of the structural work. Queensland licenses structural landscaping through the QBCC from $3,300, New South Wales through Fair Trading from $5,000, and Victoria requires registration from $10,000. Western Australia and South Australia run builder registration regimes instead. Get the licence right before you quote, then price the work to cover the compliance it carries.

How high can a retaining wall be before it needs approval and an engineer?

Around 1 metre is the common council approval trigger in Australia, and engineering under AS 4678 typically kicks in from about 800mm, which is why the two get confused on site. In New Zealand, retaining walls are consent exempt up to 1.5 metres depth of ground with no surcharge. Check your council, then quote the engineering and the approval as line items, not as goodwill.

What award covers my landscaping staff and what do I pay an apprentice?

The Gardening and Landscaping Services Award MA000101 covers the trade in Australia. Fair Work refreshes the pay guide each 1 July, so last year's rates are not a defence. An adult apprentice starts at 80% of the Level 4 rate in year one, casuals carry a 25% loading, and the award also sets tool and vehicle allowances. Budget the crew off the current pay guide, not off memory.

Do landscapers have to lodge a TPAR with the ATO?

If you pay subcontractors for building and construction services, yes. The ATO lists landscaping inside the building and construction scope for the Taxable Payments Annual Report, so the excavation, paving and retaining crews you pay have to be reported. Keep subbie payments coded properly through the year and the lodgement takes minutes instead of a weekend.

Straight answers

Answers for Landscapers.

A new question from landscaping business owners, answered every day.

How do I choose a business coach for my landscaping business?

Every answer for landscapers

Other trades

See all twelve trades

A painted scene of a trade business owner home before dark, sitting on the tray of his ute while his son runs to meet him

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